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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095452">Vengeance is Mine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rocky_T/pseuds/Rocky_T'>Rocky_T</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shades of Gray [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Voyager</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Multi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 23:08:38</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,001</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24095452</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rocky_T/pseuds/Rocky_T</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Seven avenges Hugh's death.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Bjayzl/Seven of Nine, Chakotay/Seven of Nine, Hugh | Third of Five &amp; Seven of Nine, Icheb &amp; Seven of Nine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Shades of Gray [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651849</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Vengeance is Mine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Seven and Narissa had clearly met before their fateful encounter on board the crashed Artifact. This story fills in some background.</p><p>Many thanks to Seema for her usual excellent beta.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Seven dropped to her knees at the edge of the abyss, her breathing harsh, listening to the fading echoes of Narissa's cries as she fell into darkness below. It was finally over.</p><p>They'd first met years earlier in a bar on Fenris, in the Quiris sector. Seven and her fellow Rangers had been celebrating the successful completion of a mission. As the evening wore on, the others had drifted out in twos and threes, but Seven had resolutely remained at the bar, drinking. A few days earlier had been the anniversary of Icheb's murder. Two years ago, she'd come upon his blood-soaked body and, helpless to save him, could only end to his suffering. Two years gone, and the searing agony of his loss felt just as strong today as the moment it happened. Something had died in her that day, and she'd vowed that no matter what it took, she would track down the person responsible - her former lover, Bjayzl - and avenge his death.</p><p>Seven had just signaled to the bartender for another refill, when she heard someone say, "Some drink to remember, some drink to forget. Which one are you?"</p><p>She turned and saw a tall, willowy Human female, with curling brown hair, pale blue eyes and an upturned nose. "That depends," Seven said, her tone indifferent.</p><p>"On what?"</p><p>"On who's asking."</p><p>Taking Seven's response as an invitation, the woman took the empty barstool next to her.</p><p>She'd introduced herself as Lieutenant Rizzo. Starfleet had all types, and if Rizzo didn't particularly fit the mold Seven had become accustomed to from her time on <i>Voyager</i>, that was all right. She'd had enough of noble Starfleet officers, and their unattainable ideals, to last her a lifetime.</p><p>Still, there was something off-putting about Rizzo. Something cold. Chakotay had once told Seven that the eyes were the windows to the soul. And whenever she'd looked into his warm brown eyes, she d seen the truth of that statement. In contrast, Rizzo's eyes were shuttered, giving no hint of the person behind them, or what she was really after.</p><p>The latter, at least, became apparent as their conversation continued, moving rapidly from light banter to heavy flirting and innuendo. </p><p>Rizzo shifted her weight, so that her thigh pressed against Seven's. Seven closed her eyes, enjoying the contact, despite her initial misgivings. Rizzo leaned closer. "You're so lovely," she breathed. She reached for Seven's hand - not the one closest to her with its silvery injection tubules, but the one that lacked any implants. Rizzo kissed her fingers one by one. "So very lovely."</p><p>Seven turned to face her, moving so the ocular implant above her left eye was in Rizzo's full view. Rizzo flinched, almost imperceptibly, but Seven caught it.</p><p>Seven drew a sharp intake of breath as she recognized Rizzo's type - she was one of the ones who sought out former Borg for the thrill, their sexual pleasure heightened by the revulsion they felt toward the cybernetic implants.</p><p>Seven hadn't been interested in granting any wish fulfillment that day. </p><p>Months later, Seven held a surveillance holo of a Romulan infiltrator and immediately recognized it as Rizzo. The informant who'd showed it to her had added that the woman wasn't just Tal Shiar, but something deeper. Seven thought back to their encounter in that seedy bar on Fenris; clearly Rizzo - Narissa - had wanted something from her, beyond the obvious sexual fling. Seven had briefly considered passing on the information about Rizzo to her contacts at Starfleet, but in the end hadn't done so.  There was some value in holding onto something like this to leverage it into something greater one day, plus if Starfleet Security couldn't ferret out a Romulan mole in their midst, the Federation was in worse shape than the recent attack on Mars revealed. </p><p>She'd never expected to see the woman again. And yet, though she hadn't been fully cognizant of it at the time, their paths <i>had</i> crossed again.</p><p>Hugh had just started in his position as the director of the Borg Artifact Research Institute. They'd been friends for years; he'd reached out to her shortly after <i>Voyager</i> had returned from the Delta Quadrant and had been a source of comfort and advice on navigating the Alpha Quadrant as a former drone - a bigger help than Chakotay, truth be told, as Hugh knew exactly what she was going through as Chakotay, for all his professions of love, could not. Hugh had understood what drove her to join the Rangers, and later, her helpless rage and despair at Icheb's murder. They'd become even closer after that.</p><p>Now, Seven was pleased for Hugh, though she couldn't fathom why he would want to take up residence on a Borg cube again.</p><p>"Don't you see?" Hugh asked, his enthusiasm evident in his face and voice, "I can help those former drones - the exBs - reclaim who they were before." He gave a wry grin. "After all, I'm somewhat of an expert on what they're facing."</p><p>Seven shifted in her seat, uncomfortable. "Hugh, I'm not saying what you're doing is unimportant. But when will you stop viewing yourself simply as an exB? There's so much more to you than that!"</p><p>Hugh sighed; it was an old point of contention between them. "That I'm an exB, that's the first thing people notice when they see me." He raised his voice over her objection, well aware what she was about to say. "Why fight the obvious?"</p><p>"What concerns me is that's how you see yourself, first and foremost," Seven said.</p><p>Hugh opened his mouth to reply, but was distracted. "Excuse me," he said to someone who had entered his office but stood just out of range of the viewscreen. 'Is there something you need of me?"</p><p>"The apologies are mine, Director," a female voice said, and then the speaker - a slender Romulan woman - came into view. Curiously, her hair was long and curly, as opposed to the usual severe style the Romulans usually favored for both males and females. "I did not mean to interrupt your conversation."</p><p>"I'm just talking with an old friend," Hugh said, with a wave of his hand. "This is Annika Hansen, although she prefers to go by Seven. She s also an exB." He turned to Seven. This is one of my co-workers on board the Artifact--"</p><p>"Pleased to meet you," the woman said immediately, so smoothly it didn't seem like she had deliberately interrupted Hugh's introduction. "It's all right, Director, the matter I wished to discuss with you is not overly important. I will return later when you are not busy."</p><p>Seven had briefly glanced at the Romulan, then dismissed her, intent on continuing her conversation with Hugh. Only much later did she identify her as Narissa.</p><p>That was also one of the last times she'd spoken to Hugh.</p><p>When Seven had boarded the Artifact most recently, summoned by the activation of the Fenris Rangers comm chip, she'd immediately stepped into a crisis situation. The cube was in chaos, the Romulans systematically killing the former drones. When Seven had discovered Elnor holding a group of Romulans at bay, she'd demanded to know where Hugh was, and Elnor had responded that he was dead. There had been no time to mourn - then, or later. Against her better judgement, Seven had given herself to the Borg once more, forging a mini-Collective to enable them to fight off the invaders. Her gambit had ultimately been successful; defeated, the Romulans had fled aboard their ships. And almost immediately, the cube had plunged into another crisis - this time, one of Seven's making.</p><p>While Seven had been interfaced with the cube, she' d seen <i>La Sirena</i> in a transwarp conduit with a Romulan scout ship in pursuit, and so she opened another conduit to come after them. After crashing on the synths' planet, they had been busy with repairs to the life support systems. Only later, when the cube's sensors were restored, did Seven realize that not all the Romulans had left.</p><p>Stealthily, Seven made her way to sector 31-A, substation 517, where the main Borg weapons arrays were located. It was slow going. The Borg cube was massive, measuring over three kilometers along an edge and possessing an internal volume of 28 cubic kilometers. Large sections had been destroyed, some from the earlier battle, but most in the crash landing on the planet after encountering the synths' defensive orchids. Using her ingrained knowledge of the cube structure - sharpened and intensified by her recent interface with the Borg systems - Seven tracked her quarry.</p><p>From the shadows, Seven watched as a figure brought the weapons systems back on line. "Step away from the console!" she called out as she emerged, drawing a bead with her phaser. </p><p>Narissa slowly turned, and then made to snatch up a disruptor.</p><p>"Drop your weapon," Seven said.</p><p>Narissa did so immediately and raised her hands. "I'm unarmed."</p><p>"I highly doubt that's true," Seven said as she advanced. Without lowering her phaser, she swiftly searched Narissa and relieved her of a pair of knives.</p><p>Narissa smiled as Seven's hands roughly passed over her body. "You know, you would almost be pretty if you weren't a disgusting cyberfreak. A machine who thinks she's Human."</p><p>"I've never hidden who and what I am," Seven said, keeping her phaser in position with one hand, and entering commands into the console with the other. "Unlike some others I could mention." She frowned as she realized Narissa had managed to get a weapons lock on <i>La Sirena</i> and moved to disengage.</p><p>Narissa took advantage of Seven's momentary distraction, and struck.</p><p>Seven gasped as the blow landed on the side of her head, swiftly followed by another. She lunged forward and managed to knock her opponent to one side. Narissa kicked out wildly and missed, instead hitting the side of the console, which threw her off balance.</p><p>Seven advanced, aware she had dropped her phaser in the first rush of Narissa's attack. She stole a quick glance at the floor, looking for it, while at the same time aware she couldn't afford to take her eyes off Narissa. The Romulan was edging backward, scraping her foot along the floor, and her triumphant smile announced that she had found the phaser. Seven steeled herself to jump, but Narissa surprised her by not going for the weapon. Instead, she kicked it over the narrow ledge off to the side and it fell into the yawning chasm below. This section of the cube had sustained heavy damage; entire bulkheads had been ripped away and there was nothing to impede the phaser's fall. Dim thuds resounded as the phaser hit various protrusions on its way down.</p><p>"Poor sad Queen Annika," Narissa mocked. "You can take the drone out of the Collective, but you can never take the Collective out of drone. How old were you, when they turned you into one of those disgusting cyber creatures? Even after you were 'freed', you're still one of them. Anyone can tell just by looking at you. How could you stand it?" Narissa jockeyed for position, clearly trying to get her hands on the console. Seven did her best to keep her at bay, while at the same trying to avoid stepping off the ledge. "Why didn't you just put a phaser to your head and be done with it?" Narissa demanded as she made one last desperate lunge.</p><p>"Because I still had this to live for," Seven said, as she pushed Narissa to the edge. "This...is for Hugh." With her last strength, Seven kicked Narissa over the ledge. </p><p>Seven dropped to her knees at the edge of the abyss, her breathing harsh, listening to the fading echoes of Narissa's cries as she fell into darkness below. It was finally over.</p><p>Just as when she'd shot Bjayzl, however, killing Hugh's murderer didn't make her feel any better. Seven crawled over to the console, released the weapons lock on <i>La Sirena</i>, and then slumped to the floor, exhausted.</p>
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